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SPEECH 



UPOX 



THE FOREIGN SLAVE TEADE, 



BEFORE THE 



LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



BY 



L. W. SPRATT, Esq., of Chaeleston. 



COLUMBIA, S. C: 

STEAM-POWER PRESS SOUTHERN QUARDIAN. 

* 1858. 



SPEECH 



THE rOPiEIGI SLAVE TRADE, 



BEFORE THE 



LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



L. W. SPRATT, Esq., of Chaelestoi^. 



COLUMBIA, S. C: 

STEAM-POWER PBESS SOUTHERN GUARDIAN. 

1858. 



,9 7(05" 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



House of Representatives, December 14, 1858. 
Mr. L. W. Spratt — 

Dear Sir : The undersigned, in behalf ot" many members of the General Assembly would request 
that you will favor them and the public wiih your close, full and philosophical argument delivered 
before the House last night, upon the rights of the States in, and the restrictive measures of 
the General Government upon domestic slavery, and the propriety and policy of action by the 
Legislature in relation thereto. 

We are convinced that the argument will do much good in awakening the people ef the State 
to the just conccptioQ of their rights and the dangers which threaten the great institutiou of the 
South. 

We therefore request that you will furnish us a copy for publication. 

Very truly yours, etc., 
J. D. BLANDING, E. B. BRYAJf, 

J. K. FUR MAN, J- C. McKEWN, 

GEORGE P. ELLIOTT, JNO. G. PRESSLEY, 

CHARLES ALSTON, Jr.. J. H. BROOKS. 

ALLEN J. GREEN, 



House of Representatives, S. C, December 15, 1858. 

GENTL7.MEN :" I am much obliged'by the complimentary maiiner in which you have been pleased 
to notice my remarks before the House upon fie subject of the foreign slave trade. I tear when 
they are in print, they will not come up to the impression you seem to have takea of them, but 
such as they are, they will be at your service as soon as I can complete a copy. 

With great Respect, 

I am Your Obedient Servant, 

L. W. SPRATT. 
To Messrs. J. D. Blandino, J. K. Furman, George P. Elliott, Charles Alston, Allen J. 
Green, E. B. Bryan, J. C. McKewn, John G. Prkssley, J. H. Brooks. 



•I-'" 



EESOLUTIONS ON THE SLAVE TRADE. 



The following resolutions were offered in the House of Representatives, and were 
made the special order for Monday evening, the 4th December, 1858. 

Whereas, there have come to be two sections in this Union, distinct in social constitution, and 
in objects and motives of legislation; and whereas, of these the Northern section has come to 
be the stronger, and has moved the Government to consider and disturb the social institutions of 
the South; and whereas, the Sjuthern section, affected by the institution of domestic slavery, is 
therein charged with a most momentous trust, to the proper execution of which there is a neces- 
Bity for an unrestricted choice of means, and a field of unembarrassed action ; be it, therefore, 

Resolved, That the several Spates of the South are of right, and ought to be, in fact, supreme 
upon the questions which affect the fortunes of domestic slavery. 

Resolved, That the measures of the General Government restrictive of the foreign slave trade, 
are in derogation of this right and ought to be repealed. 

Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and the Representatives from this 
State be requested, to use all proper efforts to procure the repeal of such restrictions; and that a 
copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the several Southern States for their concurrence. 



SPEECH. 



Mk. Speaker: — In advance of discussion on I 
the resolutions I have iiad the honor to present ; j 
— if they be di^cl).«sed, I would ask the indulgence | 
of tlie House while I state a Httle more at length i 
their aim and purport. 

It will bf i^een that they do not propose a | 
further importation of foreign slaves. Upon the 
propriety of that measure there well may be a 
diversity of opinion, and as it is a measure which 
will only come in question when the States of the 
South shall be in a condition to act for thera- 
Belves upon the subject, it is enough for the 
present lo consider ilie imporiance of eman- 
cipating slavery from the control of Cottgress, 
•while we leave that question of ulterior policy to 
the time when it will come in proper order for 
investigation. 

It, would be but fair to say, however, that even 
in reference to that ulterior policy I can have lit- 
tle question ; and that, if restrictions by the gen- 
eral goveriuneiit should be removed, I would cer- 
tainly oppose this imposition by the State. I have 
long been convinced that the toreign slave trade, 
and that alone, will solve the problem of progress 
of the South, and it will not be out of place, per- 
haps, even on the special question now before 
us, to briefly state the grounds of that conviction. 
In the first place I conceive that it is the only 
road to political power, and that without politi- 
cal power there is no security for social and po- 
litical rights. 

By reference to the census returns of 1808, it 
will be seen that the slave and hireling States 
■were equal in number and nearly equal in popu- 
lation. Since that time no slaves have come to 
the South , but since that time five millions of for- 
eigners have come to the North, and while there- 
fore the South at present has but fifteen States 
and ten millions of people, the North has seven- 
teen States and sixteen millions of people, and an 
increase of at least three hundred thousand per 
annum from abroad. In view of these facts it 
■would seem certain that the South has come to 
be at the mercy of the North in legislation, and 
that these restrictions have been the causes of it. 
But, as equality was lost to the South by the 
suppression of the slave trade, so would it seem 
that the slave trade would of necessity restore it. 
That trade re-opened, slaves would come, if not to 
the sea-board, at least to the western frontier, and 
for all who come there would be a direct increase 



of representation in the national legislature. — 
There would also be a broader base for the rul- 
ii'.g race to stand on. 3,500,000 slaves, support 
6,000,000 masters now. Still more would give 
a broader basis for still more, and every slave 
that comes, therefore, might be said to bring his 
master with him, and thus to add more thaa 
twice his political value to the importance of the 
South. 

But to political power there is a necessity for 
States as well as men, and slaves would quite as 
surely give them to us. Ten thou-and masters have 
failed to take Kansas, but so would not have failed 
ten thousand slaves. Ten thousand of the rudest 
Africans that ever set their feet upon our shores, 
imported, it need be, in Boston ships and under 
Boston slave drivers, would have swept the free 
soil party from that land. There is not an abo- 
litionist there who would not have purchased a 
slave at a price approaching the costs of impor- 
tation, and so purchasing a slave, there is not aa 
abolitionist there who would not have become as 
strong a propagandist of slavery as ever lived. 
As they would have taken Kansas, so if import- 
ed freely, would they take every territory offered 
to the west. And thus, in giving States and pop- 
ulation to the south, it is reasonably certain that 
it is within the power of these rude untu'ored sav- 
ao-es to decide this great political question, to re- 
st'ore the South to power, and, perhaps, to save 
this Union. 

As they give a road to power for the South, 
so also I have thought they give the only road. 
To an increase of power there must be popula- 
tion, and of such a population as is necessary to 
extend the institutions of the South, there is no 
other source than Africa. Europeans will noo 
come. They would come to enterprises in con- 
nection with slave labor, if these were possible, 
but they will not come to competion with our 
slaves, and while therefore they come in mil- 
lions to the North, they will not come to us. 
But if they should, it is to be feared they would 
not come to strengthen us, or to extend slavery, 
but to exclude the slave. If slaves v/ere abun- 
dant, there would be offices of direction to which 
the foreigner could come;— if they were cheap, 
cheap enough to be employed in competition with 
European operatives in the arts, there would be 
opportunities ol enterprise to which the foreigner 
could come, but not so abundant, nor so cheap ; 



the hireling o 'ly cornea to competition with them 
and to their excliHion, therefore, and tlms it is, 
that from Maryland and Delaware, and from the 
northern counties of Virginia, and from Balti- 
more, Richmond, Charleston, Mobile, New Oi- 
lcans and St. Louis, slaves have been driven 
fiom almost all the employments to which 
they weie accustomed, and have been sent in 
thousands to the rural districts of the further 
Eouih. Through such a population iheie is no 
roadtopoH-er for the Souih. Without slaves 
enough for combinaiicn, ihey would aboiiiioni^e 
the States they came to strengthen, ai'd would 
break the very centres of our institution. But 
grant ihe condition of abut dant slaves at prices 
to be used in trade and we could draw an army 
of defeiideis from every State in Europe. 

As the foreign sliive trade would give politi- 
cal power to the South, so also would it •^ive 
prosperity ai:d progress. There is one thin| at 
the South, the importance of which I think is 
not sufSeiently estimated and this is the want of 
opportunity. When slaves are offered in our 
rnarkets, they are competed for by planters from 
the Sou:h and W^est. To us th'ey are worth 
what the lines of bu.-iness open to them here 
will justify; to planters from the South and West' 
they are worth the price that is j,isti6ed by eicrhi 
bales of Cotton per annum, at fifty dollars perbTle i 
At such prices, they can hardly be employed on 
lighter lands in the older States ; at such prices 
they can never be em;,loyed by tradesmen in com- 
petition with pauper labour elsewhere Tne 
higher prices of labour raise the price of pro- I 
Vksions upon artisans and operatives. That still I 
nioie increases the charges upon mechanical em- ' 
ployments; there thus comes to be no mar<rin 
between the c.is,s of labour and the value of "its 
products,— and no opportunitv, therefore in or- 
dinary lines of busine^s. Without such oppor- 
tmiity, there is no advancement in population • 
without advanciment in population there is no 
profit in lines of Railroads and S ean-boats ; no 
increase m the value of lands and other petma- 
iient property, and so it is therefore, that beyond 
thecuhivationofthesoiland the sale and trans- 
portation of :ts products to a foreign ma.-ket, it is 
hat d to say what business there is in which enter- 
prise and capital can be invested with the certain- 
ly o success ; and while we teem with enterprise 
while we pour millions into undertakings thai 
never pay, and at the call of public spirit, ai^ ready 
to pay many millions more, we do not stagnate, as 
IS complacently asserted by holiday economists for 
the reason that we have not enterprise, or fail' for 
the reason that we are simpletons and slug- 
gards, but we st:ignate for the want of opportunity 
and we tail for the reason, that we have hoped 
against hope, and have slaked our fortunes upon 
the achievement of success, where success was 
never pos-ible. 

_ This state of facts would be altered by the for- 
eign slave trade. The slaves that come, could 
be putchased at the costs of imporfaiion At 
Buch prices, they could find empbyment ou our 



lighter soil ; the meang of living would become 
more abundant and more cheap ; with cheap 
slaves and cheap subsistence, our enterprising 
tradesmen could compete with tradesmen in othe° 
sections of the world ; instead of importing arti- 
cles and implements for use, we could suoply our- 
selves ; we could turn the tide of trash back upon 
the older countries; a larger population would 
result,— a larger amount of products and ftibrics 
would solicit transportation ; hotels, railroads 
and steamboats would begin to pay ; wealth would 
flow in upon us ;— Importance would come to us, 
arid instead of standing as we now stand, in pro- 
vincial admiiafion of the Hoes and Vanderhilts 
of the Norih resplendent in ihe prosperity that 
has come upon them with 5,000,000 slaving 
foreigners, we ourselves could stand up sill more 
resplendent in the prosperity to be poured upon 
I us by the teeming thousands from the plains of 
: Africa. 

j Tiiat this is not a visionary speculation, mny 
be seen from the renords of our seaboaid dis- 
tricts. When foreign slrves were introduced, 
the rural parishes of Cha .ston district were 
, the brightest spots in all America. Taken from 
j the mat ts of Charleston to the lands atijacent, 
I t'ey gave to every thing they touched the 
spring of progress. From the labour of one 
year, came as many more the next. They gave 
drainage to the land, cultivation to the t-oil, and 
I provisions in abundance to the artisans ' and 
j operatives of the city. These, in turn, with labor 
j and provisions cheap, struck boldly out upon 
the field of competition. Leather w'as tanned, 
cloth was nianufacturrd, shoes, hats, clothes' 
and implements were made for consuniption and 
for export. Tlie town advanced ; the country 
prospered; swamps were reclaimed; mansions 
ro<e; avenues were planted; pleasure grounds 
laid out; commerce started; ships sailed to 
every quarter of the world; parish churches 
in imposing styles of architecture were erected ; 
and spots more progressive, and more true 
to the principles of religion, and more warm- 
ed by hospitality were never seen than the 
town and parishes of Charleston Di.-tricr._ 
But upon the suppression of that trade their 
splendors waned ; their glories departed : pro- 
gress left them for the North; cultivation ceased; 
the swamps returned; mansions became tenant- 
less and roofless; values fell; lands that sold for 
$50 per acre now sell for less than $5; chuiches 
are abandoned, trade no longer prosecuted— of 
twenty tanyards, not one remains--of shoes, hats 
and implements of industry once put upon the 
trade of foreign towns, none now are put upon our 
own ; and Charleston, which was once upon the 
road from Europe to the North, now stands aside, 
and while once the metropolis of America, is now 
the unconsidered seaport of a tributary province. 
Such are the effects of the foreign slave trade as 
exhibited in the history of Charle.-ton Disti'ict. 
The expeiience of that District, to a greater or 
a less extent, has been the experience of other 
sections of our Southern seaboard, and this would 



Beeni to be conclusive upon the question whether 
that trade would once, again, give progress to the 
South. 

So, also, is there reason to believe it would 
give integrity to the social constitution of the 
South. There are now 3,500,(100 slave? to 6,- 
000,000 masidrs, and thus, ihi-refore, there are 
3,000,000 masters wiihout slaves. Tiiese, it is 
said, »vill be true to the South; and so they will 
be. If slavery be an evil, " the ulcer is at lea^t 
their own, and they will let no others scratch it." 
So, also, they wjuld not let it be abolished, for 
they, '.00, would share in the ruin o< it* aboli- 
tion. But while there is not a white man who 
would not own a s'ave if he could — and if there 
were slaves at iniporter's prices, there is scarcely 
a white rnau who could not it he would — yet. if 
he cannot do so, and at present prices many can- 
not ; if forced to woik in competition with the 
slave fiom the inab'lity to get above him, there 
19 no single white man who will not feel the in- 
stinct of repulsion — who will not use his fian- 
chise to widen his splirre — who will not elbow 
slaves from employm^ is, rather than be el- 
bowed from employments by slaves; and ihus it 
is, that they have driven ihem from Northern 
States to the S >uth — thus it Is, that they have 
diiven them from the larger cities of the Sou'li 
to the country — thus it is, that they feel them- 
selves, and will torce the Lpcislature to acknow- 
ledge, that there is a diffoience between free la- 
bor and slave labor — atid thus it is, and must be, 
that utiiil E itopia be C)li>inz!d, mm will ever 
act from the centre of his own ind:vi<lual inter- 
est. To be clear of this, there must be no con- 
flict of interests — no class in competition with 
our slaves. There would be no such class, if 
there were slaves, at prices low enough, for every 
line of business. Such as might be imported 
would be so cheap ; and it is thus, therefore, 
that the foreign siave trade, to every hutnati ap- 
prcheiision, would harmotiize discordant inter- 
ests, anil restore ititegritv the most perfect, to 
the social system of the S)uth. 

In view ot these considerations, then — in view 
of the assurance that the slave trade would restore 
political power to the Sjuth; that it would give 
progre?3 to the South ; that it would restore in- 
tegrity to the social system of the South ; I am 
free to confess that, for my own part, I would 
be willing, as a mete measure of policy, to re- 
open and legitimate, at oiioe, the foreign slave 
trade. 

But there is another consideration, apart from 
the practical operation of that measure, wliich, 
in my opinion, renders it necessary that the South 
shall take a decided stand upon it: And it is a 
consideration which, I trust, will address itself to 
all who feel for the honor and importance of the 
South, whatever may be their convictions as to 
those ultitnale results to wiiich I have alluded. 

This Utiioii is a democracy, Ot that, 1 pre- 
sume, there is little question, Ii is a democracy 
in name, and I suppose there are none to doubt 
but that it is al^io u democracy in nature . lu fact, 



the social principle that triumphed in the revolu- 
tion was simply this, that '■'Jiqualily is thf right 
of man ;" and it is veiy certain that thi- Union, 
as a whole, has been at little pains lo disaffirm 
It. It entered the Constitution of our present 
goverrimeiit — it declared the law that majorities 
shall govern — that suffrage shall he universal — 
that all othC'.'s shall be elective, and that all re- 
strictions on individual liberty shall bo removed. 
It was at the dictate of thi-i piinciple that the 
word slave v/as not adtnitted in the Constitution — 
that, in 1794, as far as we could, we prohibited 
the transportation of slaves from one foreign 
country to another — that, in 1808, we prohibited 
the introduction of slaves to this coutiiiy — liiat, 
iti 1819, we sent armud ships to cruise against 
the slave tiade — that, in 1820, we made it piracy 
to engage in it — that, iti 1820 also, we resiriciefl 
slavery to the region south of 3G.30 — that, in 
184"2, we joitied E iglain) in a maritime cru>ade 
against it, atid that, in 1850, we cleansed the na- 
tional Capitol of the poUu ion of that execrable 
traffic. It is also under the influence of this 
principle that Abolitioti petitions have come to 
Congress — that we rejoice when European peo- 
ple cut the throats of their rulers, and that gen- 
tie-hea't<'d d*mes and damst-ls, in shedding tears 
and ink ujion the crimes and horr(>rs of the age, 
see no single thing so deeply deplorable as the 
crime and horror of man's dominion over man. 
But while this Union is a deniociacy, the 
South is not a democracy. It is so in its ex- 
ternal character, and so in sentiment perhaps, 
for there are very matiy of us who yet sympa- 
thise in the feeling that eqioality is the right of 
man, but in its social condition the South is not; 
a democracy. On the contrary, it is perhaps 
the purest form of aistocracy, the woild has 
ever seen. Elsewhere, aristocracies have beea 
forced a id artificial, here it is natural ar,d ne- 
cessary, and the cases are as tare as comets, thai; 
individuals of the one cla<s have passed into the 
other. The principle that equality is the right 
of man, is true to in evtent, and to that exieiit 
we have adopted it. It is true that men of the 
same race are equal, and they are not divided, 
therefore, by any political distinctions. But it 
is not true that men of all races are equal. If; 
is not true that the negro is the equal of the 
white man. He has never been able to rear a 
structure of civilization in his native land; he 
ha< not been able to sustain the structure pre- 
pared for him in the West Indies ; he nas not 
been able to stand up to the structure sustained 
over him at the North, and neither in his 
native laud or in a foreign laud, in a sav- 
age or a civilized condition, has he ever 
been able to illuminate one living truth with the 
rays of genius. Not so equal , he has not been ad- 
mitted to an equality. He has not been forced to 
a position which nature has fitted htm to claim. 
The Sjuth ha< been content to act rather on fact 
than theory. She has assigned him to his true con- 
dition — she has inexorably held him to it, and iu 
doing so, she has announced iu social practice, 



despite the teacbings of philanthropy, what I 
now would have her proclaim to the world, thai 
^^ equal) (if is not the right of man, but is the 
right of equals onlij." 

Such being the social attitude of the South, I 
would ask whether we shall not aEBrm it and 
proclaim it ? and whether it is not now the time, 
and this the occasion, upon which we should de- 
mand of the general government, the recogni- 
tion of our right to be supreme upon the ques- 
tions which aiiect it? 

Shall we not affirm it? And why shall we not 
affirm it? Is it for the reason thai, democracy is 
right ? There is one sense in which it may be 
right. It is right, where one section of a people 
is elevated above another by political distinctions, 
nierely,that those distinctions should be done awiiy 
with. It was right that the distinctions between 
the Plebeian and Patrician should have given 
way in Rome; that the vassal should have risen 
to the level of the lord in France, and it is 
right, perhaps, that the Commons should ad- 
vance upon the hereditary peers of England, and 
tell them ever, as upon the passage of the re- 
form bill, that they must pass their measure^, or 
that the king should make a house of lords to 
pass them; and soil is right, perhaps, that peer 
and peasant, of the same race, and wiih no differ- 
ence in natural ability to distinguish them, should 
come at length to the same horizontal plane of 
a democracy. It is right, at least in this, thai 
it is natural and necessary that it should be so. 
Bat is the social condition that results from that 
democratic plane a thing to be commended? Let 
the inquirer look at the fearful vibrations from 
anarchy to despotism in Rome. Let him look at 
the rivers of blood that flowed from free and equal 
France along the streets of Paris. Let him look 
at the brigandage that rules in Mexico. Let hitu 
look at the fearttd portents at the North. Let 
him look at the prostration of all that is ele- 
vated ; — at the rise of all that is low. Let him 
look at the reptiles that crawl from the sinks of 
vice to brandish their forked tongues about the 
pillars of the capitol ; at the bands of pa- 
triots that march the streets of New York with 
banners inscribed with ''liberty" on one side, "we 
■will have bread " upon the other, and then say, 
whether, if equality beindeedthe rightofmaii, 
there be not conditions in it that render it illu- 
sory, and whether inequalities of some sort, — 
whether distinct social orders, no matter how ob- 
jectio'.iable in theory — are not of necessity in so- 
cial practice. 

Is it for the reason slavery is wrong, that 
we are not to affirm our attitude ? That the 
slavery of one man to another no better than 
himself, is wrong, may be admitted. It is a con- 
dition that can only be maintained by force, and 
BO condition may be riglit when force is neces- 
sary to sustain it. But is the slavery of the 
negro to the white man wrong ? To thai as little 
force is necessary to hold oil and water at unequal 
levels. Is it of injury to the negro ? I venture to 
affirm that no negroes that were ever born, have 



been so blessed, in themselves and their posterity, 
as the 400,000 Africans imported to this country. 
Is it of injury to the white man? I venture to 
affirm that there are no men, at any point upon 
the suiface of this earth, so favored in their lot, 
so elevated in their natures, so just to their du- 
ties, so up to the emergencies and so ready for 
the trials of their lives, as are the 6,000,000 
masters in the Southern State,". Is it of injury 
to society? In every state of society that is ar- 
tificial — and all are artificial where classes are 
placed in unnatural relations to each other — 
there must be collisions of conflicting interests, 
and the throes of an irregulaied nature. It is 
so, that social revolutions have disturbed the 
constitution of almost every nation. It is so, 
that the props of social order have been stiicken 
down in France, and ii is so, that democracy ad- 
vances upon the conservatisms of evfery Euro- 
pean Constitution, But from this souice of evil 
the slave society is free ; there can be no march of 
slaves upon the ranks of masters ; they ha\e no 
Teachings to a higher sphere ; there is no con- 
test of classes for the same position ; each is in 
its order balanced, and I have a perfect confi- 
dence that when Fracce shall fall again into the 
delirium of liberty — when the peeinge of Eng- 
land shall have yielded to the masses — when de- 
mocracy at the North shall hold its carnival — 
when all that is pure and noble shall have been 
dragged down — when all that is low and vile 
shall have mantled to the surface — when woman 
shall have taken the places and habiliments of 
man, and man shall have taken the places and 
habiliments of woman — when Free Love tniions 
and phalansteries shall pervade the land — when 
the sexes shall consort without the restraints of 
marriage, and when youths and maidens, drunk 
at noon-day and half-naked, shall reel about the 
market places, the South will stand serene and 
erect as she stands now, — the slave will be re- 
strained by power, the master by the iiusts of a 
superior position, — she will move on with a 
measured dignity of power and progress as con- 
spicuous as it is now ; and if tliere be a hopufor 
the North — a hope that she will ever ride the 
waves of bottomless perdition that roll around 
her — it is in the fact that the South will stand by 
her and will lend a helping hand lo rescue and to 
save her. 

Why, then, shall we not affirm and pro- 
claim the nature of our institution? And why 
n.ot demand of the government the recognition 
of our right to be supreme upon this question ? 
Is it that such legislation does not injure us? It 
may be that to some, if not to all, the Southern 
States, there would be material advantage in a 
fuither importation of slaves. To such this leg- 
islation is an injury. Il may be that a further 
imporiation of slaves would give political power 
to the South ; and to the South, therefore, this 
legislation is an injury. Butadinit that to neither 
is ihere such a requisition, and still these Acts 
are of irreparable wrong and injury. They are 
wrong iu that they are the censure of the Gov- 



eminent, of which we are an equal party ; and 
an injury in the fact that they are a brand upon 
our iustituiion. The spread of slavery may^ be 
wrong, and therefore the Missouri Compromise ; 
but davery iUelf Jiiust be wrovg, when the ships 
and seamen of our country are liept upon the 
seas to preclude the means to its formation. By 
DO dexterity can we dodge the logical accuracy 
of this concUision. We may show, as we can 
show, that this union of unequal races is right; 
that it exhibits the best form of society the world 
has ever seen; that it exhibits order and the se- 
curities of order; that it has raised the savage 
to an agency in civilization ; that it has given the 
ruling race a higher point to start from in its 
reach to nobler objects — still the mind will fol- 
low the wrong to its results ; still, it the trade 
be piracy, the slave is plunder ; if it be a crime 
to take him, it is a crime to keep him ; and sense 
and reason tell us we abandon slavery, when 
we admit a wrong in the means to its formation. 

Why, then , shall we not demand the repeal of 
these restrictions? Is it that it will precipitate 
an issue ? That is the one thing, perhaps, the 
most devou'ly to be wished for. The contest is 
impending and inevitable, unless we shall escape 
it in submission. The North has seventeen 
States a\id sixteen million people; the South has 
fifteen States, and but ten million people; the 
North has thus the power of legislation, and she 
has shown that she will use it; she has used it 
already to the limits of endurance; she enter- 
tains petitions to abolish slavery; she has put re- 
strictions on the slave trade; she has fixed limits 
to the spread of slavery; she has prohibited the 
trade in slaves within the limits of the Capitol ; 
she has made an effort to grasp (he helm of gov- 
ernment; she i.-! marshalhng her forces for an- 
other grasp in 1860 ; she proscribes the men who 
will not literally carry out her evil edicts; and 
thus, therefore, there is revealed already the 
power and purpose of oppression. But it is 
more important still, that there is, of that aggres- 
sion, the necessity. The proclivities of power 
are certain and resistless. It runs to oppression 
as naturally and necessarily as waters flow or 
sparks fly upwaids. No logic, no policy, no feel- 
ing, can avert ir. Its leaders, so-called, are as 
powerless to control it as the reeds the current 
upon which they float. It is true, they may see 
the precipice and may recoil from the verge, but 
only to be trampled by the mass that plunges 
after; and we must stem the current, or we must 
erect political barriers against it. If, then, it is 
our purpose to preserve the fortunes and the 
form of that society an Eternal Providence has 
committed to our keeping, the issue is ineviiable, 
and wise and prudent men must own the 
sooner it is made the better. The power and 
patronage of the Government are already in the 
hands ot our antagonists, and every hour's delay 
but strengihens them and wears away from us 
the nerve and spirit of resistance. 

Then why not now demand repeal? Is it for 
the reason that it is not policy to import more 



slaves? If so, we will not import them. The 

several Southern S'ates can decide that qnesion 
for themselves. If Texas, with her broad do- 
main, may want them, she may admit ihem ; it 
we may not want them, we may exclude them. 
It is not now policy to admit the introduction of 
free negroes, and we now exclude them without 
an Act of C ingress. So, also, could we exclude 
the slave. Is it that it would not be right to im- 
port them? If so, are we notable to restrain 
ourselves ? Must we have aid of Congress to 
keep us from the wrong? Is that Congress more 
wise, more prudent, more virtuous, than our- 
selves? Do they know better than we do what 
is honest and becoming? And are we willing to 
confess, not only that our slaves are plunder, and 
that they come to us through piracy, but that 
such is our state of helplessness and degradation 
if it were not for the General Government, we 
would rush again, with inebriate alacrity, to the 
Criminal indulgence? But say that no Southern 
State may want them, or may ever want them — 
say even, that it may be wrong to import them— 
and yet is it of extreme importance that we 
should be supreme upon this question. The 
power assumed by the General Government to 
legislate upon this subject, if supreme above the 
States, will be as supreme at some other time to 
force them in, as it is now to keep them out; 
and will any say that it is safe and right to be 
upon both questions at the mercy of the General 
Government; that when the South shall be re- 
duced to the condition of a conquered province— 
when manliness and independence shall have left 
us— when literature and fashion shall have fol- 
lowed to the North — when there will be no hope 
of political power from a further importation of 
slaves— no assurance that we will have the phys- 
ical ability to control them, to our own security 
and order— that then it will not be of interest to 
the North to force them in, and that then it will 
not be of the very last importance to the South 
to keep them out. If this be so, it is now time 
for the South to determine whether she will be 
mi Juris upon this vital subject, and if not pre- 
pared to hold our institution at the mercy of the 
North, it is now the time to strike lor indepen- 
dence. 

Is it for the reason that the North will not 
yield to our demands? This is not to be as- 
sumed. It is true the North will not allow the 
South a road to power if she can help it. But it 
must be remembered that the existence of the 
North depends upon the Union. Her every in- 
terest is parasitic. Her cities are dependent on 
the Sjuih for custom. Her factories are depend- 
ent on the South for a market. They would have 
our trade and custom upon their own ternis; but 
ihey must have them: without them their fac- 
tories would tail and New York would be shriveled 
to the dimensions of a common town. If the 
S»uth were independent they could not have 
them ; the South would trade direct to foreign 
couniries; upon foreign fabrics she would exact 
no higher duties than ou fabrics from the North. 



10 



If the factories of the North can barely stand now, 
when piMtected by an average impost duty of 
twenty-five percent., they could not then stand 
under siicii a coinpelilion ; and the stake, tliere- 
fore, is one of existence, which the North can 
never ii>k on such a venture. The North would 
preserve dominion, but it is imperative upon her 
to preserve the Union. The madness of the North 
increases, and the time may come when consid- 
eraiions ot interest even will not control her ac- 
tion ; but it has not cotne yet — and now I be- ' 
lieve that there is not a demand to be made by 
tiie South, no matter how extiayagant, which, 
if made as the condition of this Union, would 
not be acct-pted by the North. 

But say ihat it is so. Say that thougli we re- 
pudiate restrictions on the slave trade, and de- 
nia;:d the repeal of them, the North shall not a.s- 
sent to it. Then an issue will have been made, 
and if not conceded, it is possible the South may 
be forced to the intrepidity of acting tor herself 
upon the subject . But if not, she will at least 
have put. heiself right upon the record. Slie 
will have averted the reproach of being a party 
to the censure of her own institutions — of con- 
curring in her own condemnation — of meanly 
prnciising what she does not dare to preach — of 
holding to the world a sentiment which iti 
every action of her life the contradicts — and it 
is time that she should do so. It is time that we 
should spfak out like men upon this subject. If 
we practice slavery, let us avow it — let us own it 
as a right, rather than allow it to be imputed as 
a wrong — let us demand of our common Gov- 
ernment that it will depart from the office of dii- 
criininatioii, and let us bare our institutions in 
their pioper aspect and condition to the world, 
or let us bury them. 

Is it for the reason that we would 
shock the moral sentiment of other coun- 
tries? It is convenient tor the North to execrate 
our institution, for she finds her profit in keep- 
ing it at a discount. It is convenient for England 
to execrate the institution, for she regards it as 
a principle of strength to the North, and as the 
prop therefore of her most imperious rival. But 
it is an error to suppose that any of these States 
are tender on llie score of human rights. Eng- 
land crushes India — France, Algeria — Russia, 
Prussia and Austria have portioned Poland — all 
march to opportunity; ai.d if forced to look for 
European morality in the history of European 
S ates, we will find everywhere an unequivocal 
assertion of the one great principle that strength 
is virtue, aid weakness only crime. Nor is it, 
true that E iropeaii Siates are hostile to the 
spread of slavery at the South. They are bos- 
tile to this Union, perhaps; they see in it a 
threatetiiiig rival in every branch of art, and 
they see that rival armed with one of the most 
potent productive agents the world has ever seen. 
T.'iey would crush India and Algeria to make an 
equal supply of cotton with the North, and fail- 
ing in this, they would crush slavery to bring 
the North to a fooling with them ; but to slavery 



without the North they have no repugnance. — 
Oi the contrary, if it were to stand out for it- 
self, free fiom the control of any other power, 
and were to offer to all a fair and open trade in 
its commodities, it would not otily not be warred 
upon, but the South would be singularly favored ; 
crowns would bend before her; kingdoms and 
empires would enter the lists for her approval, 
and quitting her free estate, it vrould be in her 
option to become the bride of the world, rather 
than remain, as now, the miserable mistress of 
the North, Ti'.e repugnance to Southern slavery 
therelore, is not due to its nature, but to the re- 
lations only ill whici), by the accidents of its his- 
tory, it has been placed ; and if there b • a meas- 
ure which will teach the North that the South is 
to be no longer the passive subject of oppres- 
,sion — which will tcacli the world that the North 
is not the Union, and which, therefore, will not; 
<mly not shock the world, but will inspire a feel- 
ing of respec: fui consideration — it will be that 
which declares that the South will henceforth be 
supreme upon the questious which affect her own 
peculiar institutions. 

Is it troni an unwillingness in this State to run 
again in advance of public opinion at the Suulh? 
I know there are those who have been panic- 
stiicken at the fearful intrepidity of some of 
our poiitical movements ; but they may be re- 
lieved of apprehension of any evil from it. — 
South Carolina has been too far advanced for 
placemen and politicians, if we have such char- 
acters among us. But she has never been too 
far advanced lor liberty and the respect of other 
Southern States. She has made no call upon the 
South that has not been justified by the occasion ; 
none that the South, to the best of her ability, 
has not ultimately answered; and if there be a 
State in this Union distinguifhed by the respect 
and confidence of other States, whose profes- 
sions are unquestioned, whose principles are re- 
garded as autlioriiy, and whose delegates, whether 
to the National I-egislature or to Conventions of 
its own political section, are received with high 
consideration, and wiio are looked upon as ban- 
ner-bearers in every just and honoiable cause, 
that State is South Carolina. That she is so dis- 
tingui hed, is for the reason only tiiat her princi- 
ples have always been pronounced; that her ac- 
tion has always been decided; that she has al- 
ways been ready for emergencies without consid- 
erations of expediency ; and if we would emu- 
late the deeds of those who have gone betore us. 
and would merit and transmit their honors and 
their virtues, it is now for us to follow their ex- 
ample. 

Mr. Speaker, It is possible that there never 
raav be a peaceful solution to the questions at 
issue between these sections. Wiihin this Union 
there are distinct principles of nationality, and it 
is possible that they may never be torn apart 
without the throes of revolution. It is an ordi- 
nance of nature, wise and right as nature's ordi- 
nances always are, that the germs of animal life 
can only come through hemorrhage aud rupture 



11 



to existence. And it may be an ordinance of 
nature also, tliat the germs of society can only 
come through hemorrhage and rupture to devel- 
opment. Tlie Riiaim of Britain, pregnant of the 
priiicip e that Equality is the right of man, was 
delivered only through the Revolution. This 
Union, pregnant of the greater principle, that 
equality is the right of equils only, may need 
another Revolution to deliverance. But if it be 
possible to escape that trial ; if it be possible for 
the Sauth to come, as she will come, to the func» 
tioiis of her social nature without the severance 
of existing lies, without the rupture of relations 
that are still fondly cherished, without imbruing 
her hands in the blood of kindred, it must be in 
the way that we propose. It must be by giving 
play to the elements of her -system, by permit- 
ting of the subj'^ct race enough to meet her re- 
quisitions, by giving her thus a path to political 
power, and through political power to the secu- 
rity of her rights. But without this, there is no 
power on earth to save this Union ; and if there 
were, there would be no conceivable calamity so 
dreadful as its preservation. 

If slavery stand, and it must stand — for it is 
too abundant of blessings and too prodigal of 
promise to be given up — it must start from its 
repose — It must take the moral strength of an 
aggressive attitude. Though strong, strong as a 
tempest slumbering, with latent energies of in- 
fliction and endurance to meet the world in arms, 
it is still unsafe unless those energies are called 
to action. The passive subject of a foreign sen- 
timent it has been too long already. It was thus 
that slavery fell in Domingo and Jamaica. 
It is thus that it may fall in Cuba, and here, also, 
for here already the toils are thrown around it. 
It is proscribed and reprobated — its foreign 
sources of support are cut away from it — the 
reins of its government ate held by other hands 
than its own — its own property is used to cor- 
rupt its own people. Men, diffident of its endu- 
rance, move away from it. Its pious people are 
instructed to deplore it. Its women aud chil- 
dren are taught to turn against it. Its friends 
who speak for its integritv, and who claim the 
means to its extension, are looked upon as agi- 
tators, and I now, who speak truly what I be 
lieve for its advancement and tlie advancement 
of humanity, in which, under Heaven, I believe 
it to be the most potent agent this world has 
ever seen — am sure that scarce a woman's heart in 
all this land responds to what I say, or that, from 
the pious and pure, whom most I would wish to 
please, if to please them were consistent with my 
duty, will rise one prayer for the measure we 
propose. These things being so, it is time that 
slavery should be roused to a consciousness of 
responsibility for its own preservation ; that it 
should become an actor in the drama of its own 
fate ; that it should speak for itself upon this great 
question. It never yet has spoken.. The world 
speaks of slavery, the North speaks of slavery, 
we speak of slavery as a thing apart from us, but 
slavery uever yet has spokea, aud it is time that 



it should speak. "When it does, its first utterance 
will be, " We musr be f'ee — free to expand 
according to our own nature — free of the touch 
of any hostile hand upon us — we are right ia 
that existence which it has pleased Almighty 
God to give us, and we can admit no declaratioa 
of a wrong in the means to our advancemetit.'' 
Mr. Speaker, we have been elected here at the 
South to a fearfully momentous trust. It is a 
trust of moment to have liberty and hopes at 
stake, with the hand of power already stretched 
to grasp them. But there is a trust for time and 
man of even greater moment. It is the 
precept of human experience that equals must be 
equal, and that politica' distinctions must there- 
fore \ield to that necessity. But it is the pre- 
cept, also, that to power and progress there must 
be separate orders in the State, and to us, the 
first in human histoiy, has been committed a so- 
ciety combining these conditions. There has 
been equality in France, but despotism has beea 
a welcome refuge from its enormities ; there 
were slaves in Greece and Rome, but they were 
the natural equals of their masters, and the rela- 
tion therefore was forced and trfinsitory ; but 
here there is a perfect compliance with the re- 
quisition — there is, among equals, equality the 
most perfect, and there are oiders that can never 
merge ; and in this the Eternal Ruler of the 
world has committed to us a sacred social truth, 
which we are under the most sacred obligations 
to transmit to other ages. To that transmissioa 
we are committed by the highest sanctions that 
were everiticumbent upon any people. If we do 
transmit it we shall find as our reward a career of 
greatness and of glory more extended than was 
ever opened to the hopes of man. If we do not, if 
we bend in the execution of that trust to the requi- 
sitions of another people not so charged with that 
responsibility, and so fail, we shall leave to our 
land and our posterity a heritage of calamity and 
crime, the darkest that ever came to any people. 
States have been subjugated, and Rome was 
plundered by barbarians, yet carnage ended with 
resistance; but here, with subjugation comes a 
war of races, hand to hand, that will not end 
while a remnant of the weaker race remains. In 
view of these considerations, then — in view of 
the hopes and glories of success — in view of the 
Climes and calamities of failure — in view of the 
blessings to be conferred upon other lands and 
other ages, and of the smiles of an approving 
Heaven, it is incumbent upon us to start now 
upon the performance of our duty, and it is not 
an indiscreet or an unbecoming act in that per- 
formance to tell this government that, charged 
with this momentous trust, we cannot yield to 
them the office of determining its conditions — 
that that, of right, belongs to us, not to be affect- 
ed by them, and that upon the rights and obliga- 
tions of that office we can take no judgment but 
our own. To do this is the object of the resolu- 
tions I have had the honor to present, and I hope, 
therefore, that they will meet the approbatioa of 
the House. 



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